Reduced He ion irradiation damage in ZrC-based high-entropy ceramics

Excellent irradiation resistance is the basic property of nuclear materials to keep safety. The high-entropy design has great potential improve materials, which been proven in alloys. However, whether or not high entropy can also ceramics, especially mechanism therein still needs be uncovered. In this work, and helium (He) behaviors zirconium carbide (ZrC)-based ceramics (HECs), i.e., (Zr0.2Ti0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2W0.2)C, were investigated compared with those ZrC under 540 keV He ion a dose 1×1017 cm−2 at room temperature subsequent annealing. Both (Zr0.2Ti0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2W0.2)C maintain lattice integrity after irradiation, while irradiation-induced expansion smaller (0.78%) highly thermodynamic stability than that (0.91%). After annealing 800 ℃, exhibits residual 0.20% expansion, shows only 0.10%. Full recovery parameter (a) achieved for both 1500 ℃. addition, meantime brings about favorable structural evolution phenomena including bubbles are evenly distributed without abnormal coarsening aggregation, segregation, shorter sparser dislocation. excellent related high-entropy-induced phase stability, sluggish diffusion defects, stress dispersion along production vacancies by valence compensation. present study indicates carbides applications.